


brother me, brother mine

by amosanguis



Series: Episode & Movie Tags/AUs [38]
Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Character Study, Episode Tag: s02e23 His Brother's Keeper, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-14
Updated: 2017-11-14
Packaged: 2019-02-02 06:39:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12721542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amosanguis/pseuds/amosanguis
Summary: Steven meets his brother’s eyes, and he says nothing. Jim just purses his lips and shakes his head, and turns away.





	brother me, brother mine

-z-

 

Steven meets his brother’s eyes, and he says nothing. Jim just purses his lips and shakes his head, and turns away.

 

-

 

The trip with dad is perfect right up until they’re walking back into the house to find it empty save for stinking dishes in the sink and rotting food on the counter and a message on the answering machine from an Army recruiter, telling Jim his bus left in the morning and that all he’d need for boot was a list of addresses if he wanted to write to anyone.

For weeks, both of them pretend that they’re not obsessively checking the mail, that their hearts don’t sink when there’s nothing from their missing.

But then those weeks slide into months, slide into years, and Steven’s long given up that Jim’ll have anything to do with either of them. And just when he thinks he’s getting over it, an Army Chaplain shows up at his door – says something about a classified mission in South America gone awry and all involved deemed lost – and Steven for the first time in a long time, falls to his knees and _prays_.

 

-

 

Steven buys every copy of every publication with Jim’s face on it. He spreads them out over his table and pours himself three fingers of their father’s most expensive whiskey.

 _In the morning_ , he thinks to himself, _I’ll find him in the morning_.

Except that when morning comes, his head aches as much as his heart and he can’t seem to find the courage. So, carefully, he packs away the magazines and squares his shoulders.

He tracks Jim’s accomplishments when he’s not busy building his company, keeps the clippings in a box next to another that holds the magazines. And when he hears word that the police need a venue for some shindig, he tells his coordinator to only charge them half-price.

 

-

 

Steven meets his brother’s eyes, and fifteen years of guilt washes over him, and he counts it as a win that Jim says anything to him at all.

 

-

 

They get through the bodies and the blood; his eyes still stinging from the gun smoke that hangs thick around the track.

There’s something about Jim now – a confidence lent from the Army and the shield on his hip and the bright-blue-eyed man at his side – and it draws Steven in. To his surprise, and after an initial reluctance, Jim doesn’t move away.

 

 

-

 

Steven meets his brother’s eyes, and Jim, with a smile splitting his face open wide, lets Steven sling his arm over Jim’s shoulders and pull him close as they walk into the night.

 

-z-

 

End.


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